First Impressions: New Recipe Domino’s Pizza

Posted January 3rd, 2010 | 4:52pm by Ryan

So I finally got around to trying the new recipe pizza over at Domino’s. I took advantage of the 2-medium 2-topping for $5.99 each deal and decided to celebrate the final Sunday of regular season football. Now that the fantasy football season is over, I can now spend a Sunday not worrying about how my team is doing and just sit back, relax and enjoy. Around where I live, there are plenty of non-major-chain pizza places to choose from. It’s extremely tempting to go with my favorite pizza at my favorite place, but it’s my duty for GrubGrade to find out what’s available to the masses. So with this in mind I invited my brother over for some new Domino’s pizza and a Sunday of football.

Our two chosen pizzas were Pepperoni/Black Olives and Ham/Pineapple. Now before we get the rounds of boo’s on topping choices, just keep in mind that the real taste test here involves Domino’s “new recipe” which involves cheese, sauce and crust. As far as I know, there hasn’t been an upgrade of quality of toppings. This seems a little odd to me. You are trying to reinvent your company and pizza taste and your toppings stay just the same as always? This was on my mind before I took a bite so let’s see how the grubbing experience actually turned out. The cheese, sauce and crust are front and center and ready to be judged.

Cheese:

The Upgrade: Shredded 100% real mozzarella and flavored with a hint of provolone

My Thoughts: Flavor-wise, I didn’t get a hint of any change. The thickness of the cheese seems to be upped somewhat but that’s about where any changes end. Provolone is such a mild tasting cheese that I’m not really surprised about not picking up on it. The other flavors (especially the crust) dominated each slice so the cheese upgrade was lost.

The Cheese...

Sauce:

The Upgrade: Sweeter and bolder with herbs and red pepper

My Thoughts: I didn’t notice the sauce having any “sweeter” qualities. I consider a sweeter pizza sauce something found in a Ledo pizza…and the Domino’s version lacked any sweetness. I did, however, notice a more robust flavor from the sauce which stood out more than the old Domino’s. Bolder is an acceptable term for this sauce versus the old sauce. I think this “bolder” sauce actually takes the sauce to the opposite of sweet. In the end though, nothing too groundbreaking but a noticeable improvement.

The Sauce...

The Crust:

The Upgrade: A garlic seasoned crust with parsley baked in

My Thoughts: I ordered the pizza with the hand-tossed crust. No I don’t think it “tastes like cardboard”. Honestly, I never really had that impression with the old recipe. The crust seemed a tad thicker and greasier than what I’m used to from the old version. The most overwhelming quality I noticed was how garlicky the crust was. You can smell the garlic when you open the pizza box. It really took over the entire pizza with a garlic butter quality. The crust seemed identical to the Domino’s breadsticks which are “Baked to a golden brown and sprinkled with a flavorful blend of garlic, Romano cheese and parsley.” There was too much garlic and parmesan seasoning which you will notice coating your fingers when you touch it.

The Crust...

So overall, I’ve got to say the new pizza recipe at Domino’s worked out just OK. It’s a slight improvement from the old but I don’t see it changing my opinion in the BIG 3. I put Papa John’s #1, Domino’s #2 and Pizza Hut #3 before this taste-test and it remains the same now. Keep in mind this is just my personal preference of the major chains. It’s good to see Domino’s making the effort to improve their quality some but I wasn’t blown away. Maybe going all the way and upgrading the toppings (as I mentioned before) would change my mind. One thing is for sure though, garlic dominates this pizza. If you’ve tried the new Domino’s pizza recipe, what do you think?

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72 comments on “First Impressions: New Recipe Domino’s Pizza”

I’m happy to see someone else like Papa John’s besides me when it comes to the big chains! I really do like Papa John’s pizza, particularly the crust and breadsticks. They rarely disappoint me. I just wish my town had more non-chain pizza joints. There are 3 that are really good, and two of the three are pretty much identical.

dominos in wall ,NJ . they are not responding properly to the customers, and showing attitude, i am kal living in budget inn . located on hwy 35 wall . NJ

Dominos should teach there staff how to use maths to calculate the price they are charging to customers. the problem i faced with one of the dominos representative i asked him how much is the cost of pizza , they told me 5.99 +2$(travel charge)+ .69 toping + 7% tax. so i asked him what would be the total he told me 15.99$ , i asked him what’s with the 5 $ extra. he told me if you want pizza or not, if you want pizza it is 15$ or other wise get out.

I was waiting to hear what you had to say before actually trying it. I’m sure I will at some point, but I’m not so sure about all that garlic. The “Big 3″ are all mostly the same to me in terms of pros/cons, and I agree about preferring a smaller favorite.

I might be going into withdrawals over not having fantasy to worry about this week. It’s sick.

Ummm, I never said that it’s similar to Papa John’s at all. That’s not even close to what I said… I was just commenting on how Ryan put Papa John’s ahead of Domino’s and Pizza Hut on his list of pizza chains.

The sauce and crust, as you said, definitely have no major improvement. The crust is, tastewise, much better. It tastes just like a wonderful buttery garlic bread! That being said, it’s incredibly greasy. Never before did I notice their pizza to be greasy at all, but this one had a soaked box by the time we were done with it. As someone who is watching their weight, I will definitely order all future pizzas without this garlic butter coating on the crust. Not to mention, it was ridiculously messy to eat.

@AdamBomb, I used to work at a Papa Johns. The curst and garlic bread are cut from the same dough. I think all the major chains produce sauce that is too sweet, but then again I’m not really into “chain” pizza.

@ Zac … Your love for garlic would probably appreciate this new Domino’s recipe then. I think Domino’s could’ve just introduced this new crust as an option instead of changing the standard. I don’t know little kids tastes but I’m wondering if they’d be fans of the overuse of garlic butter. Could hurt the pizza party sales in the younger demo.

The new recipe sux. Just like the “new” coke did. Don’t like all the garlic, the sauce (what little there was) tastes like pure sugar. The crust was half baked.What I orderd was a “large regular plain pie”. What I got was a substitute. I should have been warned. I don’t watch TV. Was this change advertised or crammed down our throats like Obamma? Two thumbs down.

hey ouchman. Obama won an election legitimately, and will win again, legitimately, unlike your boy GW Bush, who stole the 2000 election. Also, this is a pizza blog, has nothing to do with politics. Also, no one cares what a uninformed redneck tea party POS like you thinks about food, or anything else, anyways.

In terms of the big national chains, Papa Johns is for me the easy winner. I’ve never rated Dominos at all, which is why I’m kind of interested in tasting their new stuff. Everything I’ve heard about it has been positive–even if in many cases it was just slightly positive!

The crust: more taste, same great texture. The cheese mixture: very little difference. The sauce: here’s the big difference….if you dont like the kick of red pepper flakes….back away and order from another pizza chain! Youve been warned.

I was a Domino’s customer for years and knew well their old “flavorless” menu of pizzas.

Then I watched the TV commercials about the “new” Domino’s and decided to try them again after favoring Pizza Hut, Mountain Mikes, Round Table, and other chains for the past several years.

We ordered 3 medium pizzas, all different toppings, to really get a sense of the improvements. Well guess what – as of Sunday, my local Domino’s (antioch, ca) has apparently NOT implemented the improvements – we got 3 of the same old terrible pizzas we always knew.

DAMN Domino’s, why did you launch the media campaign when you had not rolled out the improvements to all your stores yet?! This was poor and I likened it to a bait and switch.

Now, i am even LESS likely to try again when there are other deserving chains making good pizza as they always have.

Consumers- best ask your store if they have improved yet or you may find the same old cardboard pizza at your door.

I haven’t tried the new recipe, but since a Marco’s Pizza was put in our neighborhood I have rarely purchased anything else. It is the best franchise pizza I have ever had.

I’m not a huge fan of any of the Big 3 listed, especially Papa John’s. That is the most boring tasting pizza I have ever had. Before Marco’s we would usually order LaRosa’s (a Cincinnati area favorite).

I work with Domino’s and if you’re not a fan of the new crust you can order it without the extra garlic seasoning. Just call the store to place your next order and ask for your pizza without the garlic crust or to go light on the seasoning and they will make it that way for you. The same with the new sauce – if it’s too spicy or you prefer the old recipe try the hearty marinara sauce on your next order.

I’ve had the new recipe twice now and I did detect a sweeter sauce the first time, not as noticeable the second, but overall still not as spicy as I’d like. I was looking for reviews of the hearty marinara which led me here. I’m hoping it might be spicier. I always order ‘light cheese,’ so that’s never a big factor for me.

The best part, for me, is the new crust. The texture is a bit chewier, but not a deal breaker. I love the flavor of the crust. I didn’t find it overbearing, but I love garlic, so it’s just a personal preference. If you like Pizza Hut breadsticks, you should like the new crust.

I actually prefer their old recipe pizza. I’m a sucker for an “herby” sauce, which both Pizza Hut and Dominos (until now) had. In fact, the sauce is pretty much the only reason I ever get a pizza from Pizza Hut….on those rare occasions I get one. I wasn’t thrilled with the Dominos pizza though I did like the garlic butter crust.

I have more of a “meh” relationship with Papa Johns though. The sauce is just way too dang sweet and I would like some toppings with my pizza please.

My favorite sauce of all time is still Round Table Pizza’s sauce, love that stuff on their pan pizza.

However, winning the award for my favorite pizza of all time, is a pizza made with the sadly discontinued-years-ago Straw Hat sourdough pizza crust. That crust was simply awesome, just the right amount of crispy on the bottom, chewy in the center, and with a subtle tangy flavor that went perfect with the pizza sauce/toppings.

The new recipe was…well…meh…While it’s “different” than their old pizza, it’s not necessarily an improvement. Does it have more flavor? Yes. Is it thicker? Yes. But that’s about it. Didn’t do enough to change my opinion of them. In fact, I may now steer away from it because of the garlic/parmesan-saturated crust that dripped with grease. By far the messiest pizza to eat.

The new dominos pizza is definitely an improvement for one of the cheapest pizzas in town. The garlic butter crust is extremely messy, and it’s now impossible to work and eat at the same time because of that, but as far as pizzas go, this did not disappoint. I consider pizza a big exception in terms of diet and health, but if you want to splurge and save a buck – order dominos.com online and save! papa johns is still the better chain, but never in price!

This new pizza is just God awful. I LOVED the old Domino’s pizza – they were #2 on my speed dial (#1 defaults to voicemail). And now this? Just plain terrible. I don’t want spicy sauce. I don’t want to go through a stack of napkins every slice, either. Unfortunately, they are the only major chain that delivers around here. Looks like I’ll be spending a lot more on gas in 2010. I’d honestly rather eat yellow snow than have this new junk again! Didn’t these guys ever hear about New Coke?

Man, youve got to be kidding! I guess its my fault for overexpectation as it is a chain volume pizza, but come on. The hype on the commercial looked like they really were trying to do something special. Same over priced junk pizza they always served. When you compare this to a nieghborhood pizza joint, it does not even compute to waste your money. If they are going to charge 15 bucks for a large you gotta do better. My joint around the corner does a large 2 topping for 11 bucks that blows the doors off these guys. I gave them another try and thats the last time unless Im starving to death and thats all we can get.

I haven’t tried Domino’s new recipe pizza, but I did try something I hadn’t tried from them before: thin-crust Pacific Veggie pizza.

Described as “Roasted red peppers, spinach, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and black olives with feta and provolone cheeses on a parmesan crust.” I ordered mine minus black olives and it was delightful surprise: Not greasy, crunchy with good amounts of cheese and the veggies tasted fresh, sauce was just right probably because there was just enough of it to be tasty. All in all a good balance in a pizza.

Ok, so I’m actually eating the new Dominos Pizza as I’m typing this comment. To make it short…it’s not bad. I read several reviews on their new pizza and people are dogging it. I would say about a handful said that like it. Honestly, I really enjoyed the old recipe. I too took advantage on the 2 med pizzas for 6 buck….which I must say is a sweet deal, the the driver was here with the pizzas within 20 min of me calling and the food was nice and hot! So KUDOS for that! Now, back to the pizza, I ordered 2 sausage and pepperoni pizzas. The Garlic in the crust….definitely overwhelms the pizza, in fact, my kitchen smells like a garlic factory right now. The sauce is a little too spicy I want to say as my mouth is actually burning a little right now and the sausage was very dry. Dominos sausage back in the day was perfect!!! Dominos, I’m not going to dog you because at least you attempted to improve…however, I thought you guys were good before….but that’s just me. Maybe, you can give folks the option to order the old recipe pizza or the new. I’ve never had Papa John’s to compare you to. However, you totally smoke Pizza Hut. I don’t see how that Hut is even still standing.

This is the first time i have thrown a slice of pizza in my hand into the garbage. I order from both local pizza joints and the big chains from time to time. I love garlic but the flavor overpowers the pizza. Sauce was minimal, so any changes were muted. Cheese….same as before.

So, great job with the Ads and showing focus groups complaining. they successfully made folks forget about youtube debaucle. They got all of us to try the “new” pizza, and have to give them recognition for that. Will i try it again, or tell folks they are missing out on a great pie. Not a chance.

Domino’s Pizza is a great restaurant! I love there chicken wings! I am not a big fan of he new pizza. First time I tried it got sick. My stomach was acting up. I was no way It couldnt be. A month later I order pizza again same thing but worse! I am really upset about it. It was my favorite pizza place. Now I got to find another place. But I’ll still order there wings!

Ok…. I love pizza…. Pizza chain I have them rated as #1 Papa Johns, #2 Pizza Hut and that is it because I have never like dominos pizza before…. but, I tasted it on thurs and well I think it is too much garlic, and the sauce sucks and the cheese eh…. I dont care for it. I still love Papa Johns and when I ate the Dominos Pizza I was regreting it and wished I had ordered papa johns. I also love the mom and pop pizza they are made with a lot more love and care because its a small business and they want to have continuous customers, as opposed to kids making pizza to make money. So.. this is my opinion.

i didnt detect too much garlic in fact it seemed right on to me (of course i dont know i’m the best judge of overgarlicness as i dip my pizza in the garlic sauce they have for the bread). I didnt detect a great deal of spice in the sauce either. My kids usually notice that but they happily ate the pizza so i guess it wasnt too bad. Its a vast improvement over the old crust which i would have rather had eaten the box. The old recipe kept me away. Until tonite i hadnt had dominos in at least 5 years because it was nasty cardboard pizza. As bad a little caesers(which used to be good at one time) i wasnt impressed with the pan pizza though it was too floppy. I notice though if you dont like the new garlic crust there was 3 other options (at least where i live) and other sauce types. The online ordering rocks it. Oh sidenote the buffalo chicken sandwich we split was really good too.

What the heck, this was always a great family meal. I have a 5-year old. He won’t eat it – too spicy – I don’t like it either – I think it’s too salty. Screw dominos! I’ll go to Pizza Hut and hopefully they haven’t followed the trend!

I had not tried Dominos for 20 years because it was so bad, but I thought “what the heck” I’ll try the new one for kicks. Bad choice. It is even worse than the earlier pizza. The only saving grace was I actually ate the edges with the garlic so I didn’t starve. This just made me realize that I should not have given them the second chance. I am permanently a non-Domino’s consumer from now on.

OK, I saw the new ad campaign and figured I’d give them one more shot and see if the pizza was improved. It was actually so much worse than I remembered I can’t imagine how anybody who has any experience with good pizza can call this or any recipe Dominos has offered to be even adequate. The sauce was weak, the cheese very lame, but the crust was so godawful I couldn’t finish my small pie. Worst pizza I have ever had. I’m not exaggerating. I went online to find somewhere where people were commenting on this because I felt so duped by their bogus ad campaign. Dominos is truly awful.

Can you say cheap Little Ceasers with a load of garlic sauce. It had the same little ceasers cheap crust, the sauce was too sweet with a little spice to it. You could slightly taste the provolone in the cheese blend, not really taste more of a smooth taste. Overall not horrible but nothing more then a slightly dressed up hot-n-ready.

Tried the Brooklyn-style crust with Salam, ‘shrooms, and extra Parmesan on top…blew the roof off my expectations! Totally sets a new standard for chain pizza. I’m a true follower of pizza of all varieties, and I can testify Domino’s is now a legitimate and dependable option for a delightful and fulfilling pizza experience.

Dominos was always fast, close and fairly cheap, so I’d order a pizza from them every once and a while. It wasn’t my favorite, but it was okay. I’ve given up on Dominos altogether now — I can’t stand the new overpowering garlic flavor and greasiness. The pizza I ordered had soaked the bottom of the cardboard box with grease. Yuck! I could almost feel my arteries clogging as I tried to eat the stuff. Halfway through, I tossed the remainder in the trash after our dog turned up its nose at it. Dominos lost me as a long-time customer.

This ad campaign is an epic fail of sorts. See here in Canada, we get all the same ads on all major stations, and here is Dominos telling us how shitty there old pizzas were. However, Dominos Canada is still using the same ol’ recipe and as per a press release have no intentions on changing such. What an epic fail lols

I didn’t think the old pizza was awful — but it did seem greasy and cheap. The new ones don’t seem to be as cheap-seeming. I thought overall it was pretty good taste, especially for the $7 or so I paid for the pizza. There are 15 pizza places within a half-mile of my place, though, so there is lots of inexpensive competition.

I thought it was absolutely aweful, and if anyone has a site that i can post a comment i wrote to Domino’s I would appreciate it. Here is my comment

I just wanted to get a chance to chime in about your new pizza. I’ve allways liked your pizza and worked for the company for 3 years, 25 years ago. I observed your commercials about your upgraded and “better” pizza, so I decided to try it out for myself. I figured, well I allready like Domino’s pizza, so this stuff must be fantastic!!! I couldnt have been more wrong. It was cooked right, the store did nothing wrong, it was just horrible and bland. I have not gone back since. It actually tasted more like that papa johns crap that you are trying to be better than and compare yourselves to in your commercials. Pappa Johns pizza has allways been sweet and very bland tasting. Maybe thats what the general public wants, but I find it uneventful and flavorless and will not eat there crap either, and unfortunately dominos, you have made that short list of pies I wont eat! I hope you smarten up and do what Coke did when they changed there recipe, and change it back before its to late!

Ive been eatin the shit outta there pizza its really good but personaly i think that pizza flavor varies from location i live in arizona and its aqesome but up in maine when i went and visited it tasted like shitty cardboard … yeah not even good tasting cardboard

I waited OVER a hour for pizza to get here and when it arrived it wasn’t even hot. Barely warm. I had to heat it in the microwave as soon as it got here. WHO EVER HEARD OF HAVING TO REHEAT PIZZA AS SOON AS ITS DELIEVERED TO YOUR HOUSE!?! The pizza sause tasted funny to. Can’t point my finger on it.

I tried their new recipe the other day and I have to say it was not good at all. I mean I wasn’t a fan of the old recipe either but at least I could still eat it. It has been about 4 days since I “tried” to eat it and I still can’t get past the taste and smell. It’s one of those things where just the thought of it kind of makes me want to throw up, AND I LIKE GARLIC!! I honestly think that I will never be able to eat there again.

If you are in Texas like I am,it will depend on who is cooking that night and what night it is,One 5 different occasions it was hit or miss,but I find having the thin crust is the best way to enjoy the new sauce and cheese and that has always been a winner!

I really prefer the old pizza. i dont like garlic, so i pretty much have to avoid the crust. i dont mind the rest of the changes though. all together i still prefer Pizza Hut as my my 1 big chain pizza but i don’t have one close enough to have them deliver. the best pizza around though would have to V & J Pizza though but that is not a large chain.

Domino’s makes the WORST PIZZA EVER!!!!!!!! I bought the 2 for 5.99 each.. Tried one slice and threw away both boxes. The garlic and parmesan made me sick. It didn’t even taste like pizza. Long story short, save your cash for a real pizza, if you want to go cheap, go to Little Caesar’s or even Pizza Hut lol.. If your willing to spend some cash, then go to Pizza My Heart or Amici’s.

The pizza is not bad, but there is a problem of cost when one orders more than one topping. If you order one topping, you get X ounces. If you order 2,3,or more toppings, they reduce each topping to X/2 or X/3 or X/4 ounces and still charge the full price for the addon as if it is full X ounces. Deceptive, I would say.

My family and I ordered (2) Dominos Pizza’s on Christmas eve, after not having Dominos Pizza for a couple of years after having a bad experience with their old stlye pizza. We ordered a pepper and onion pizza and a pepperoni pizza. I do have to say that the pepper and onion pizza was very good. However the pepperoni pizza had a very weird taste to it… All and all I think I’ll still be staying away from Dominos Pizza

Pizza is great..if you get what you order. How difficult is it to get an order correct? And if it cannot be done correct, how difficult is it to manage the customer’s expectations so they want to come back? TWO consecutive times our pizza order in Sedona, AZ ($30+) arrived wrong and two consectutive times the manager says “It’s not my fault”. We ordered on line…had proof of our order and were told essentially “tuff, it’s your problem”. Our driver both times was great and tried to help, including calling the manager to try to compensate us…which didn’t happen. This level of business acumen is unexpected and unprofessional at best. I know it’s only pizza…but it’s the principle of the matter.

It has been several years since Domino’s came out with their new pizza and I have ever since boycotted it. I loved the old recipe, especially the Double Melt Pizza they used to have.

This new pizza smells completely sickening, it is so bad I cant stand to even be in the room with it. I feel bad when family has it at birthday parties and I have to hide it on my plate till I can trash it.

Easy.. they were thinking how to expand their options and customer base…and it was successful. Folks like you.. were minimal the new changes has seen local franchise profits and business sky rocket..and it has remained steady and growing. Domino’s is doing something right.

[…] of sweet roasted red peppers to balance it all out. Even when Domino’s introduced their “New Recipe” pizza a while back, the toppings still stayed the same so I wasn’t expecting a change here. The […]

I used to love dominos pizza it was one of my favorites now it like I ordered garlic with a spec of cheese. It’s absolutely horrible I will never order from them again. They went completely downhill. My school used to order from them but once they changed to this garlicky mess everyone complained until they switched to a respectable pizza company. They lost so much business since the switch that they are in danger of going out of business within the next five years. Maybe they will smarten up and go back to the old pizza but I doubt it. It was nice knowing them while they lasted but it’s their own fault

[…] Pizza Hut locations have started making pizzas with the new, upgraded hand-tossed style already. We saw Domino’s do something similar back in 2010. Here are the comments left on GrubGrade to point us in the direction of what we might have in […]

Ordered 2 Domino’s pizzas last night. The pepperoni tasted horrible. Nobody in my family except for my young son would eat it. It smelled funny and had a “metal” taste. Care to guess who woke up with diarrhea and throwing up this morning? Yup, my son.